Windows 8 Tips Part 4 – Bring back Hibernate

Windows 8 definitely starts up very fast. Much faster than my previous Windows installations. But one thing that I got used to was hibernating. The difference between Sleep and Hibernate (According to Microsoft) is this:

Sleep is a power-saving state that allows a computer to quickly resume full-power operation (typically within several seconds) when you want to start working again. Putting your computer into the sleep state is like pausing a DVD player—the computer immediately stops what it’s doing and is ready to start again when you want to resume working.

Hibernation is a power-saving state designed primarily for laptops. While sleep puts your work and settings in memory and draws a small amount of power, hibernation puts your open documents and programs on your hard disk, and then turns off your computer. Of all the power-saving states in Windows, hibernation uses the least amount of power. On a laptop, use hibernation when you know that you won’t use your laptop for an extended period and won’t have an opportunity to charge the battery during that time.

Personally I prefer Hibernate because with sleep, the data is all stored in RAM and will be lost if the PC loses power. Hibernate on the other hand takes this data and writes it to a file called hyberfil.sys that is then loaded back into memory when the PC starts up again. But in Windows 8, the option for Hibernate is turned off by default. To enable this, do the following:

1. Position your mouse in the bottom left hand corner of your screen (where the start button used to be) and right click to bring up the context menu. Select the Control Panel menu option.

Windows 8 start context menu

2. From the Control Panel, select the Power Options.

Windows 8 Control Panel Screen

3. In the Power Options select the menu item, “Choose what the power buttons do”.

Windows 8 Power Options

4. In the System Settings screen, click on the “Change settings that are currently unavailable” option.

Windows 8 System Settings

5. You will now see that the Hibernate Menu option is enabled. Select this option and click on “Save Changes”.

Windows 8 Hibernate Power Option

6. The option to hibernate your PC will now be visible under the Power Options.

Windows 8 Shut down Hibernate Options

Hybrid Boot

Hybrid Boot (now known as Fast Startup) is an option that is turned on by default. Think of this as a combination of sleep and hibernate that provides the startup speed of sleep along with the data security of hibernate. The option should be turned on by default, but if it isn’t you can enable this option from the same settings you changed for hibernate. As always, any comments to this article are welcome.

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Dirk is a Software Developer and Microsoft MVP from South Africa. He loves all things Technology and is slightly addicted to Twitter and Jimi Hendrix. Apart from writing code, he also enjoys writing human readable articles. "I love sharing knowledge and connecting with people from around the world. It's the diversity that makes life so beautiful." Dirk feels very strongly that pizza is simply not complete without Tabasco, that you can never have too much garlic, and that cooking the perfect steak is an art he has yet to master.